Plans to turn former Scottish Ambulance Service building in Glasgow into offices

Acorn Property Group has applied to Glasgow City Council for permission to convert the Maitland Street property.

The developers want to repair and refurbish the building, at Cowcaddens, before offering “managed workspaces”.

It was deemed surplus to requirements, closed and put up for sale by Glasgow City Council in 2010.

Acorn Property Group has a long term lease from the council, and the application reveals the plans are being resubmitted after previous approval lapsed in 2018.

The application states: “The proposal consists generally of repair and refurbishment to this Category A listed structure.

“The proposed use through the building is for commercial use — via managed workspaces. A dialogue with Glasgow City Council regarding various proposals for its adaptive conservation has been ongoing over a four year period.”

It adds the building provides “the opportunity for a series of managed workspaces with different identities”.

The plans also state the building is “unique” and “possibly the final example of the pioneering work built by Skinner, Bailey and Lubetkin English architectural practice, with a Scottish sub-base, which grew out of the internationally renowned architectural practice, The Tecton Group”.

Opened by the Queen Mother in 1970, the Ambulance Service Building at Maitland Street was relocated from North Street due to the construction of the M8.

Glasgow Corporation offered the site at Cowcaddens to the St Andrew’s Ambulance Association, which was absorbed into the Scottish Ambulance Service in 1974 during NHS reorganisation.

The association continues as St Andrew’s First Aid, a charity offering first aid services and training.

The vacant building is “important for its historic, architectural, technical and social associations”, the application adds.